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Uber-rival Lyft has filed paperwork with US regulators for an initial public offering, ending months of speculation about the timing of its market debut.

The ride-hailing firm, which was last valued at about $15 billion, did not specify the number of shares it was selling or the price range for the offering in a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission .

The IPO is slated for the first half of 2019, sources have told Reuters. Bigger rival Uber is also expected to go public next year.

Lyft's float is expected to commence after the SEC completes its review process, it said on Thursday.

In October, the company chose JPMorgan Chase & Co, Credit Suisse and Jefferies as underwriters for its IPO.

Uber and Lyft's IPOs are widely seen as a litmus test for investor tolerance for lack of profitability when it comes to iconic technology unicorns.

The two companies have taken hits to their bottom lines in order to attract drivers and enter new markets, although they have made strides in recent years in narrowing their losses.

Lyft was set up in 2012 by technology entrepreneurs John Zimmer and Logan Green, three years after Travis Kalanick co-founded Uber.

The US taxi-hailing service recently bought a London-based tech start-up in October to aid its driverless car plans. The company, called Blue Vision Labs, specialises in mapping street layouts using car-mounted smartphones.

Lyft is also hiring a London-based team to work on a project that will develop features to help its taxi service become more user-friendly, using technology from the acquired start-up. Blue Vision's technology could enable drivers and passengers currently to find each other more easily, Lyft stated.

Lyft does not provide a service in the UK, and currently only operates in the US and Canada.

However, The Daily Telegraph found that Lyft had high-level talks with Transport for London and City Hall last year. The talks, revealed in Freedom of Information records, suggests the San Francisco start-up has taken a keen interest in the UK market and on transport policy.